Travel to Brazil and first focus groups in Recife and Olinda (February 2018) 

The first project focus groups were carried out at two study sites, Recife and Olinda, in the Northeast of Brazil in February 2018. The aim was to brainstorm the vision for mobile mosquito surveillance and test the first prototype version of the ZIKA app, which the team at UCL developed in 2018. The details of this version are described extensively by Beltrán et al.(2018). During this field trip, two focus groups were conducted in the two cities. The managers’ website vision was presented to the environmental agents, and the mobile app was tested to elicit feedback. Users (i.e., five agents from Recife and three agents from Olinda) were given the opportunity to test the mobile app on their phone during the sessions and shared their feedback in the local language, Portuguese. 

Image: UFPE, UFCG, UCL Researchers and environmental surveillance team join forces to bring into fruition a mobile phone and website surveillance application for mosquito arboviruses. Picture was taken on February 15th 2018, after delivering a focus group on the showcased prototype.

Later, they have been translated into English to compile a new set of requirements, including the following changes: (1) local variations for each city (2) expanding the entomological forms to include different types of mosquitoes (i.e., culex), (3) the app should not include the route suggestion feature as the agents prefer to decide themselves and visit properties by so-called ‘blocks’. Besides, the specifications and main functionalities of the manager website were discussed as well. Lastly, based on the first focus group, the proposed system has been updated and improved for the next iterations of the prototype.